Finding A Great Pet Sitter During The Busy Summer Season

Summer is most certainly a busy time of year!  That goes double for anyone in the service industry.  From the local dry cleaner, to the local travel agency, any business that serves a regular or rotating customer base is going to be working very hard to keep everyone happy during the busy Summer.

Without proper planning, you can find yourself in quite a jam if you’re looking for short notice service over the Summer.  You’ve booked your trip we

Wait, you went to that adoption event over the Summer, and met those great folks from Fetch! Pet Care, they even told you that one of the ways they ensure their client’s peace of mind is by having a large, licensed, bonded, and insured professional staff.

Success! Fetch! Pet Care worked out perfectly, they were able to provide you the service you desperately needed, and on short notice to boot.  However, the best way to find a pet sitter or dog walker during the busy Summer season is to be prepared.  Book Summer dog walking or pet sitting services well in advance, perhaps even have a few services performed prior to the Summer to ensure everything is to your and your pet’s liking.ll in advance, got you’re nicest clothes professionally cleaned weeks ago, you even scheduled the airport shuttle two months out.  But wait, who’s watching your pets? The neighbors are staying home for the holidays, but that’s an awful lot to ask – it is their holiday too, after all.  The kennel, that’s an option, right? It is, if you’re alright with your pets being in an unfamiliar environment with alpha pets, being in a crate for the majority of the day, oh, and the risk of those airborne illnesses like kennel cough. 

What you need is a professional pet sitter!  You’ve called some smaller local operators, but it’s just the owner as a one person operation providing services – and  they’ve been overbooked for weeks. 

Win $500 for your Local Animal Shelter Courtesy of Healthy Paws Pet Insurance

Could your local animal shelter use a little more help? Fetch! Pet Care is here to help!  We've teamed up with Healthy Paws Pet Insurance to donate $500 to an animal shelter of your choice.  Tell us why you believe you and your pet are the perfect match in the form of a photo, video, or story. Do you spend your evenings throwing the ball in the yard or curled up on the couch? Simply send in photographic evidence.  The winning entry will also receive $100.    

The Importance Of Having Your Home Look “Lived In” While You’re Away

Finally! The weather is warming up and that long-awaited vacation away from the stresses at home and work is within reach. Plane tickets are purchased, hotel is booked, activities planned, and you’ve hired a pet sitter to spend some time with kitty and give your dog the walks and exercise he needs while you’re away. Great thinking on hiring that pet sitter, but not for all the obvious reasons you may be thinking.

While a great many home breaks-ins may seem like a spur of the moment/opportunistic crime, you can be assured, most of the individuals who commit such crimes are much more calculating. Burglars regularly case neighborhoods to better understand schedules, a method that can reduce their risk of getting caught. They’ll target a home or homes, and take note of who comes and goes. Busy homes typically present too much risk; they’re in search of the sleepy home, and homes can certainly look sleepy while you’re away.

There are old standard tactics that can be somewhat effective, such as setting lights to go on and off with a timer, putting your mail on vacation hold, etc., but these can be thin veils. That’s why we commended your thinking when hiring that pet sitter. Hiring a dog walker or pet sitter to care for and spend time with your pets while you’re away is a great way to not only assure your pets get the loving care they deserve and maintain their routine in the safety and comfort of their home environment, but also makes your home continue to look lived in. Obviously, a pet sitter’s priority will be the well-being of your pets, but here are some additional tasks that you could ask any professional pet sitter to perform:

· Make visits to the home at regular times. Three times daily is best, in the morning, afternoon and evening.

· Turn lights on/off, and open/close blinds.

· Retrieve the mail/paper.

· Turn on/off the radio or television

Having somebody keep your home looking lived in while you’re away can be a big deterrent against the risk of burglary. Again, great thinking on hiring that pet sitter!